Pantheon Resources PLC (AIM:PANR, OTC:PTHRF) chief executive Jay Cheatham, in today’s financial results statement, celebrated what he described as “one of great achievements” for the company – which has seen its market valuation soar above £1bn on the back of new oil discoveries in Alaska.
The comments in the results statement come after Cheatham told Proactive the company is now looking ahead to the next programme of drilling, which will focus on horizontal wells and long-term production testing.
Production testing will provide some initial cash flow though more significantly promises to open-up a high potential development that is particularly attractive presently given that it represents domestic US reserves.
Reflecting on the year’s breakthrough success Cheatham, today, said: “Against a backdrop of strong oil prices and geopolitical turbulence, there never has been a better time to prove up what has the potential to be a nationally significant oil resource in a safe jurisdiction onshore USA,” Cheatham said.
"We achieved what we set out to do - namely to confirm the presence and movability of oil in our targeted horizons. Production wells on the North Slope will all be drilled with long lateral sections and stimulated, quite different to the vertical test well drilled to gather data and then plugged and abandoned.
“The arrival of severe storms halted our operations which means that we made the decision to conclude operations for the season due to the lack of certainty surrounding whether we would have sufficient time before the onset of Spring weather. Notwithstanding, we have sufficient data to be satisfied that both Talitha #A and Theta West #1 are significant discovery wells.”
In terms of financials the company said it ended the year with US$92.7mln of cash – and by March 30 it had US$72mln – whilst it reported a US$4.4mln loss for the period.